Bruins face Matadors in IM championship, claim four out of five victories

While many devoted fans watched the Lakers battle the
Timberwolves in the Western Conference championship Tuesday night,
Pauley Pavilion hosted a championship of its own, as UCLA’s
intramural basketball champions faced off against the IM champs
from Cal State Northridge.

In front of a sold-out arena of “¦ well actually, there
were more players on the court than fans in the stands. Regardless
of the crowd, emotions ran high and physical play was inevitable as
five teams from each school battled for bragging rights, which UCLA
eventually won, taking four of the five contests.

“This was done in the past, and the students really
enjoyed it,” said Debbie Barnes, coordinator of UCLA
intramural sports. “It was time to bring back the competition
between the two schools.”

A controversial ending highlighted the first game, which went
into overtime and was just seconds away from going into double
OT.

UCLA’s women’s team was down three, with eight
seconds left in regulation when Miriam Denard banked in a 25-footer
to tie the game 30-30.

“I didn’t call bank, but I’ll take it,”
said Denard, a second-year.

Soon after the desperate three-pointer, flashbacks of Chris
Webber’s infamous timeout against North Carolina in the 1993
NCAA finals nearly became a reality.

With the score tied, a timeout was called on behalf of the UCLA
squad although it had already used its second-half timeout.

The referees, one from UCLA and the other from CSUN, huddled as
the two teams nearly came to blows. Five minutes later, they
determined that due to a misunderstanding of game rules, the
timeout would be nullified with the game resuming, resulting in
overtime, much to the dismay of all 11 Northridge fans and players
who were hoping for a technical foul call.

During the three-minute overtime period, UCLA had the lead up
until the final seconds when another controversy ensued.

Lacking the use of an official scoreboard, time was kept by a
neutral staff member. With UCLA leading 36-34, the game neared the
end of the overtime period as the seconds were yelled out,
“3-2-1.””¦ But after “1,” there was no
buzzer. Everyone was in doubt as to when regulation actually
expired.

As time was running out, a Northridge player had grabbed the
ball and made a basket to tie the game 36-36, or so she
thought.

Upon further review, the refs concluded that the basket would
not count, due to the expiration of the clock, and the victory was
awarded to UCLA, 36-34.

“I’m not sure what the hell happened,” UCLA
first-year Fallon Smith said. “She was barely grabbing the
rebound with one second left, certainly not enough time for another
shot.”

Next, the fraternity game brought forth the largest fan base to
Pauley as Sigma Chi from UCLA took on Phi Delta Theta of
Northridge.

It turned out to be no match, as Sigma Chi dominated the game,
winning 59-31, highlighted by second-year Gerry Hall’s
slam-dunk.

Already down by double-digits, a Phi Delta player tried to get
creative and bring out “mix tape” moves by throwing the
ball off Hall’s back as he ran down the court. Hall simply
turned around, stole the ball, and threw it down with two hands
over two Phi Delta players.

“That player was trying to do that all game, and he was
talking trash all night, so I had to come back with a dunk,”
Hall said.

A-League champions Gimme Those added to UCLA’s winning
streak, with a 60-58 victory over CSUN after almost blowing a 43-24
halftime lead.

C-League champions, The Rounders, continued UCLA’s run
with a 46-33 victory over Northridge.

UCLA’s sole loss came in a close and physical game as the
B-League regular season champs, Treylific, who led for most of the
game, could not put anything together late in the match up, losing
50-46.

This event looks to become bigger in the future as intramural
sports expects to make this an annual event with hopes of involving
local schools throughout the area.

“Four out of five is good, and we could only hope to
continue this throughout the years,” Barnes said.